Wednesday, July 26, 2017

31 Teams in 31 Days - Pittsburgh Penguins

A rough year for the lone prospect of the defending Stanley Cup Champions.

1. Connor Hall - Kitchener Rangers
As mentioned, a tough year for Hall who was limited to just 17 games and was shut down in November with a shoulder injury that required surgery. Not going to bother evaluating Hall based upon those 17 games, but instead let's focus on next year. Hall has had some problems with injuries during his OHL career and he needs to just stay healthy next year. The Rangers will be relying upon him to be a top 4 defender on a club with aspirations for a top 4 spot in the Conference. His physicality and size are a major asset in the defensive end, as is his mobility. Really hoping to see him stay healthy and become one of the OHL's elite stay at home defenders. Of course, there's always been the hope that his offensive game would develop eventually too, because of his strong skating. At this point, given how little he's played over the last few years, I think a year really focusing on the defensive side of things wouldn't be a bad thing. I'd expect a year of about 25+ points from Hall, with some major steps forward as a defensive stopper.

About Me

Brock Otten is a former writer for Hockeysfuture and has contributed to PuckLife magazine, in addition to other hockey websites (UHN, LSR, etc). All articles of this blog also appear at www.thescout.ca